Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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in these Pathan states. Shivaji’s father, Shahji, was one such person.
He had three jagirs at different places. Shivaji inherited this Jagir as
well as the Jagirdari tradition.
Before Shivaji came on the scene, the main concern of Maratha
Jagirdars in the Pathan states was the preservation of their feudal
interests and position. It is to the credit of Shivaji that he rejected the
Path of becoming a took of the Pathan. He planned to set up his own
independent state. Even greater credit is due to him for having aroused
and mobilized the dormant Maratha nationalism and Hindu sentiment
and having yoked it to his purpose. This is no mean achievement. In
the long history of Muslim rule in India, there is no other personality
who did it so successfully. But, one cannot run away from the fact
that, at no time in his life, Shivaji ever gave up or thought of giving up
his Jagir and Jagirdari tradition. The principal aim of Shivaji was, in
the first state of his career, to save the Jagir he had inherited, in the
second state to establish his Raj in the surrounding areas inhabited by
the Marathas, and finally to win recognition for his Raj from the Delhi
emperor. 32 For his purpose, he was prepared to make compromise and
even accept subordinate of the Mughals. ‘As regards the Delhi
Emperors, he was prepared to be their dependent vassal, if they would
let his country alone. With this view, he went all the way to Delhi to
make his submission, and even after he had been treacherously put in
confinement, he consented to an armistice, the principal condition of
which was that the Emperor should recognize him as one of the chief
nobles of the Empire. The idea of forming a confederacy of Hindu
powers all over India, and subverting Mussalman dominion, appeared
never to have seriously been entertained by him.’ 33 Jay Sinh reported
to Aurangzeb that Shivaji ‘sent me a long Hindi letter saying that he
was a useful servant of the Imperial threshold and would readily help
in the conquest of Bijapur.’ 34 After his escape from Delhi, Shivaji wrote
to Jay Sinh : ‘the Emperor has cast me off; otherwise I intended to
have begged him to allow me to recover Kandhar for him with my
own unaided resources.’ 35
We should like to make it clear again that Shivaji was no ordinary
feudal chief. He was the father of Maratha nationalism and the founder